Timeline

Diplomatic relations are officially normalized between the U.S. and Vietnam by President Bill Clinton. Trade between the two countries totals $450 million.

2007

Permanent normal trade relations are established with Vietnam the same year that Vietnam becomes a member of the World Trade Organization.

2009

Pham steps down from the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. Tam Nguyen takes over with a much younger board.

2011

Vietnamese classes begin.

2013

U.S.-Vietnamese trade is estimated at $16.5 billion. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which includes the U.S., Vietnam and seven other countries, is in its 19th round of negotiations.

Every week, nearly three dozen adults pile into a small law office on Brookhurst Avenue to shoot the breeze – in Vietnamese.

The classes include business owners, a Vietnamese rapper, a Fulbright scholar, a German and comedian Dat Phan, winner of NBC's original “Last Comic Standing.”

Some are learning the basics, while others are brushing up on their conversation skills.

But the origins of these classes go beyond a love of language.

Most of these students are English-speaking children of Vietnamese immigrants looking to reconnect with a culture they might have ignored growing up.

As the next generation of Vietnamese Americans comes of age, it's taking leadership roles in the community.

The teacher calls on a student to decipher the heavily accented script. The student squints at the phrase displayed on the flat-screen monitor and then makes an uncertain attempt to translate it.

“Please … on top?”

The classroom shakes with laughter.

“Please watch over me,” the teacher corrects. The phrase is a religious plea to Buddha, he explains.

Now it is another student's turn. She begins to sound out the next expression on the list.

“Fee … pha …” she begins.

“Fo fum!” another student interjects in an ogre's voice. Again, the room is in stitches.

It's Monday night at the TDL International Law Firm, where nearly three dozen professionals meet to learn and practice Viet-namese.

The language group, which has a Facebook page called Let's Learn Vietnamese Weekly, started with just three people in 2011. Today, there are 34 members from across Orange County, including a girl from Australia.

The reasons for learning Vietnamese are many, but most students – the majority of whom are second-generation Vietnamese Americans – are here because they want to reconnect with a cultural heritage they had forgotten or, in some cases, never got to know.

Most of these students' parents immigrated to the United States in the 1970s and '80s and, in an effort to assimilate, failed to pass on their mother tongue to their American children.

Assimilation was a big concern for the first wave of Vietnamese immigrants to Orange County, said Tam Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce. The group encourages its members to improve their language skills so they can communicate better with older Vietnamese business owners.

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